


A is for Aftermath

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: A to Z After Death (Take 1) [1]
Category: World War Z (2013)
Genre: A-Z, Challenge Response, Community: 1_million_words, Death, Destruction, Epilogue, Gen, Illnesses, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 17:03:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was practically a miracle that they had done as well as they did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A is for Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Just saw WWZ this afternoon and am still that wacky combination of excited and terrified! And I immediately began to think of stories! :D
> 
> For the 1 Million Words A to Z challenge: A.

It was practically a miracle that they had done as well as they did. The WHO station in Cardiff had found a disease that would make them sick enough for the Zekes to turn a blind eye, but that wouldn't be completely debilitating, like the one he had chosen blindly that day. Terminal was terminal, as far as the Zeke's were concerned, but camouflage did them no good if they were too sick to even stand.

Nova Scotia stood for quite a while. If they had still had refugees from Israel, then perhaps there would have been a population problem, but as it was... They had plenty of room to hold the few survivors found every week without bursting the seams of the small island. The larger part of the area had been lost, but the early blown bridge provided a blessing for the smaller half. And new refugees were found: survivors in almost every country, from most states.

As soon as the Cardiff WHO group developed a "vaccine" - because no one would take it if they knew what it actually contained - the military was the first to be inoculated. They were able to return to ports like San Diego and Norfolk and refuel. And just in time, too. Some of the smaller vessels had needed to be towed. But it worked, and they were able to walk among the Zekes without harm. There were a few mishaps, but everyone learned pretty quickly how to do their tasks in complete silence.

The next to get the vaccine were those in Nova Scotia, and that was where their timing was too close. Or perhaps cause and effect were reversed. Something set the Zekes off. They had never before gone near the water, but that day hundreds and thousands of them tried to get across the bridge, using the bodies of their fellows to fill in the gaps.

The last known refuge was overrun, but everyone was safe. Everyone there was already sick. Still, they evacuated, and began searching for a new safe haven.

It was obvious in retrospect.

Where were the best fortified walls in the world? Israel. As they gathered more boats for the non-combatants from Nova Scotia, the military made a tactical plan. First they opened all the doors and then they played music outside of the city. Gerry watched from above as, in a horrible reversal, the monsters raced back out. Somehow, creatures that spent their entire dormant period walking into walls were immeasurably able to find the single easiest route through any obstacle when 'turned on.'

When most of the Zekes had emerged and been destroyed in a fiery inferno, the stealth teams went back in. They swept through the city, district by district, clearing out the Zekes who remained behind. Most of these had been ether trapped in some way, or were unable to walk, and had been incapable of responding to the music. The military teams forewent the usual heavy artillery and instead carried small arms - anything that could have a silencer attached. And they found survivors, too. Gerry was shocked to discover that both the boy and the old man he had seen were alive; part of a small group of the ill. They had taken shelter in an empty building, and they looked the worse for their fear-filled experience. Segen had cried, though, to know that she was not the last of her people.

The fields outside the walls became hellish landscapes, with fires burning and Zekes screaming night and day. But eventually, the humans reclaimed the space. They refortified the walls, and all of the non-combatants were brought in. Other patrols had been out, around the globe, looking for more survivors, and soon the streets were almost as full as Gerry remembered. Of course, they were full of quiet, scared, sober people who recalled all too well what had happened to its former inhabitants.

But the important thing, in his mind, was that it was full. And, just as before, more people arrived every day. Most were those too sick to be a target, but a few healthy souls were found. All were given vaccines and then slipped out underneath the Zekes' noses. The military unit from South Korea was retrieved, and military teams from all over the world were slowly found. Many bases had good quarantine protocols, and suspicious commanders who locked down quickly. Many were turned, but a few seemed to survive at almost every base, and soon the military quadrants of the fort began to remind Gerry strongly of the UN.

Gerry suspected that it was easier to survive for well-trained, well-supplied soldiers who were already psychologically prepped to deal with this kind of thing. But that couldn't be the only explanation, because there were civilian survivors too, and not just the infirm. A group of interns and secretaries had been deep in a storage room of their corporate building, and had escaped the initial surge of attacks. Then, when a chopper went overhead and drew out their Zeke coworkers, they had grabbed supplies and headed to the roof.

A couple of old folks homes were discovered, where the patients had been ignored, but their caretakers killed. They were quickly evac'd. It also changed the strategy a little. Gerry was now part of a team that located hospitals, nursing homes, and treatment centers. They commanded a small force that would find these places and look for survivors that the Zekes had ignored. Sometimes they were too late, and that became truer as time went on, but sometimes they were surprised. Anyone who was contagious was put into quarantine, but better to be in a sickroom than in a broken-down hospital full of shambling zombies.

Hugely surprising was the fate of most of Africa. Though Jurgen had predicted that those countries, with their poorer conditions, would be easy pickings for the Zeke disease, it had been, in fact, the opposite. So many people there lived every day with terminal diseases. AIDS, TB, sleeping sickness, the Hepatitis family, and a dozen other illnesses were so common that in increasing instances the rescuers were discovering settlements were the humans outnumbered the Zekes, and had already taken care of their few healthy neighbors who turned. Gerry found it hugely ironic that the doctors in the Israel Survivor Compound would cure the survivors who had treatable diseases and then turn around and give them the vaccine. But, he acknowledged, better the devil they knew.

Of course, by giving everyone the same vaccine, they were eventually risking the Zekes starting to recognize them - the post-apocalyptic equivalent of building up an immunity. Still, for now, it was all they knew how to do, until they could figure out more about the Zeke disease itself. Any survivors with medical, chemical, or research training who weren't caring for the sick or churning out the vaccine were studying the zombies.

Eventually the trickle of survivors slowed, as those who were out there were found and retrieved. The Survivor Compound began to feel more like a city, and less like a prison cell. Patrols still went out night and day to look for survivors and to ambush and destroy Zekes, but it had become a fact of life.

Good lord, he was becoming _blasé_ about freaking zombies!

As he stepped out of their apartment and crossed through the international bazar down the street to report to work, Gerry looked around thoughtfully. Maybe someday they would find a cure. The WHO doctors were hopeful. Of course, the military had a different kind of hope. Already, the Commander was talking about clearing an entire continent of Zekes and creating society anew. Australia was the smallest and best isolated, and even now he knew there was a team 'efforting' the idea.

And who knew: maybe it was possible. The large scale attacks seemed to be working. Sure, they only had a few million survivors out of the seven billion people on the planet, but humanity had been that small before. Twice, before, if he remembered his pre-Ice Age history correctly. Maybe it was feasible to destroy all the Zekes and start over. It would, ironically, be the meek inheriting the earth, rather than survival of the fittest, but Gerry always tried to keep in mind what Dr. Fassbach had said. Before, you know, blowing out his own brains.

Mother Earth was a cruel bitch.

Scientists had been worried for years about humans destroying the planet with global warming, and the potential deadly repercussions if they didn't start treating the planet better. Some days Gerry wondered if they weren't living with the repercussions now.

But this was humanity's chance. They had the technology of before, and the knowledge of what could all go horribly wrong. Maybe they could re-create the human population in a way that was more harmonious with nature. Maybe they could survive, and even thrive. Maybe humans could take back their place on this earth.

That is, if the vaccine didn't kill them all first.


End file.
